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So begins one of the most epic—and certainly most popular—anime series to date, “Naruto”.

“Naruto” is the tale of Naruto Uzumaki, a mischievous 12-year-old boy who dreams of one day becoming the most powerful Hokage ninja his village has ever seen. But I’m not here to tell you Naruto’s story.

No, I’m here to explore the one thing that they never quite touch on in this richly painted reality: the mighty world of real estate. Specifically, just how much would it cost to live in Naruto’s bachelor pad?

After long hours of training (watching TV) and the use of Movoto Real Estate‘s not-quite-patented fictional evaluation techniques, I determined Naruto’s apartment would be worth a scant $100,000.

If you want to know how I found out the price, grab your Flying Kunai and read on. Dattebayo!

Ninja Skills To Find This Value

I’m not going to lie: finding the value of Naruto’s apartment was no simple Genin mission, but with the persistence of a ninja in training, I believe I finally persevered. No, I’m not a Kage, but I did manage to find the value of Naruto’s apartment, using three deadly Taijutsu (extreme internet searches). These were:

Its location

Its size

Comparable properties

Finding the size was the easy part. When it came to the location and comparable properties, though, I think I would have preferred a fight with the nine-tailed fox.

Where in the World is Naruto Uzumaki?

In the anime series, Naruto lives in a small apartment in the Hidden Leaf Village, or Konoha, in the Land of Fire. But where would Naruto live in our world? Well, that took some research.

After visiting a whole lot of fan sites, studying multiple maps of Naruto’s world, and brushing up on my Earthly geography, I determined that Naruto’s village would be none other than the Shiga Prefecture in Kansai, Japan.

Just like the Fire Country is one of the largest ninja countries in Naruto’s world, Japan is the birthplace of ninja. Specifically, Hidden Leaf Village is one of the most powerful ninja villages in the world—just as Shiga Prefecture is in our world. Shiga Prefecture is home to Kōga-ryū, an ancient ninjutsu school, where students are trained in disguise, escape, concealment, explosives, medicines, and poisons. They are also, of course, experts in unarmed and armed combat.

Another similarity is the terrain. In Naruto’s world, Hidden Leaf Village is surrounded by forests (hence the name) and to the north, lies Hokage Mountain. Now, in our world, Mount Ibuki may not have five faces carved into it, but the rest is accurate.

As far as the surrounding countries? Here’s what I’m thinking:

Land of Iron: North Korea

Land of Wind: Mongolia (Gobi Desert region)

Land of Tea: China

Land of Snow: Russia

Land of Waterfalls: South Korea

So now we know where Naruto lives, but just how big is his place?

A Real Ninja Keeps Things Simple

It’s a good thing ninjas are trained in non-attachment, because Naruto’s apartment is pretty simple, to say the least. As we learn in the first episode, Naruto lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a building that looks sort of like a tiered cake gone wrong, or the living quarters of a ship.

It is never said on the show how Naruto actually has his own apartment at such a young age, but the popular opinion seems to be that the village pays for his home, food, clothing, etc. with the watchful help of the Third Hokage.

What I do know for sure, though, is that the home is made up of two main rooms—the bedroom and the kitchen/dining area—plus a hallway and bathroom.

With the help of this photo of the bedroom and some fan art of the kitchen, I determined that these two rooms are approximately 144 square feet each. Adding about 35 square feet for your run-of-the-mill small bathroom and about 75 square feet for any hallways or storage spaces we don’t see in the show, Naruto’s apartment totals up to be about 400 square feet total. In other words, the apartment is small—but, as with Naruto himself, it packs a punch.

Next, I needed to know how much other ninja apartments would cost.

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What’s Like a Ninja’s Apartment?

Turns out, there are tons of apartments fit for ninja in Japan—and by that, I mean small. The difficulty here was not finding a one-bedroom or studio apartment in the Kansai area; it was finding one where I could actually read the real estate website (I’m working on my Japanese!).

After much searching, I found five one-bedroom properties in the area and averaged their prices per square foot to get $250 per square foot—a figure that is supported by the Global Property Guide website (a good ninja checks her facts).

The Final Test: Multiplication

With a price of $250 per square foot and a size of 400 square feet, Naruto’s apartment will cost you a mere $100,000.

Of course, that’s only if he wants to sell it—and let’s be honest here, how many teenage boys do you know who would give up living in their own apartment? Not for all the Ichiraku Ramen in the world.

One Comment

I would have thought that Amegakure (Hidden Rain Village) would have been North Korea and Tanigakure(Hidden Valley Village) would have been South Korea. Considering that Amegakure was once a war zone and is a hostile country.